Tag: herbs

A retired person’s summer “vacation”

Trying to make light conversation, the receptionist at the dentist’s office asked if I had done anything fun during the summer. I stammered; I had trouble thinking of anything.

Thing is, I was just a very distracted unit at this point. My cat Mac had managed to somewhat seriously injure his paw on a sharp section of our catio (since repaired), leading him to have to be isolated, medicated, and coned. This threw the usual cat routine—which is a significant part of our overall household routine—into some disarray.

My mind was full of that (plus, having to get my dental appointment). No space to think back on what fun things I might have done of late.

White cat in pink fabric cone with injured paw.
The patient. This cone proved inadequate, by the way. He ended up in the rigid plastic type later.

Mac is now on the mend—no longer isolated or coned, just on medication and laser treatments for a few more days—and that gave me some time to review the calendar and recall that I did, in fact, do some fun stuff this summer… And that I should maybe document it.

While we’re still nursing a general reluctance to travel much, there have been some sojourns to nearby towns and cities; quite a few visits to local restaurants, often while catching up friends not seen in some time; and enjoying the outdoors through hiking, biking, and gardening.

Visiting nearby towns and cities

Back in June, we took a day trip to Toronto to attend a National Ballet performance. We took the GO train there and back, which worked well. (We took taxis to and from the GO station.)

On arrival, after visiting a few shops, we had lunch at The Rabbit Hole, a kind of upscale British pub. Though the forecast was a mixed bag, it turned out to be a nice enough at lunch time to be able to sit out on their patio. The space was pretty; the food was very good; all in all, a very enjoyable meal.

The ballet, however, was… not entirely successful? It was called Maddaddam. It was based on a trilogy of futuristic Margaret Atwood novels, which is a pretty ambitious thing to try to cover in 90 minutes of dance. Though they used video and narration to try to help things along on that front, it was still often just confusing. On the bright side, the dancing was excellent, of course, and I did like the score.

Later that same month, we carpooled with some friends over to the hamlet of New Hamburg to dine at Puddicombe House. It was a lovely day, which made it good that we had booked veranda seating. Great catching up with these friends, whom we hadn’t seen in about a year. We also quite liked the food. I even took a photo!

Dish of seared tuna, orzo, and asparagus, with wine glass in the background, and people with faces not shown. Sun streamed.
Seared tuna with orzo and asparagus

On the day of the Apocalypse…

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How does your garden grow?

It grows pretty darn well this year–certainly a damn sight better than last year!

Whereas last year we had one (1) pea, this year we actually had a handful! And they were delicious. And we’ve already eaten twice as many tomatoes (4) than we ever got all of last season–despite having far fewer plants this year–and there appears to be many more tomatoes on the way, working their way from green to orange to red.

Yes, the garden has been doing so well, in fact, that some animal has discovered it. This is a first, actually. It’s a raised bed, so that deters a lot of critters right there. I was just plain confused, at first, to find that the parsley and cilantro plants that had been so abundant with leaves at breakfast looked really… stemmy at dinner time. Took a while to realize that meant some sort of animal invader.

The next day was worse, the parsley and cilantro now completely leafless, and some of the tomatoes tried and discarded (they’re still pretty green, most of them).

Worst of all, the critter didn’t even touch the sage. Sage, I’m starting to realize, is the zucchini of the herb world: hardy, abundant, yet not very useful as a food item. That, I would happily share with anyone. Yet all of its many, many leaves remained intact, serving only to make the naked parsley and cilantro plants nearby look more sad.

I went on the Interweb to look up “keeping animals out of garden”, and of course that just left me totally confused. Cayenne works, except when it doesn’t. Put dirty socks out there. Or smelly soap. Electric fences. Radios set CBC (human voice).

Anyway, we finally decided to try a modified fencing approach. We now have mesh fabric running around the whole garden, lowered at strategic points so that I can still get at it. I have no idea if I’m dealing with raccoon, bunny, or even cat exploring his vegetarian side, but regardless, at least that should make access more complicated, so hopefully they’ll go visit the neighbour’s garden instead.

Hurray for basil (and its kin)

I’ve not posted for a while on the “things I like” theme, so here’s a short and sweet one: Growing my own herbs. What’s great about that is:

  • It’s easy. Most don’t require much coddling. Maybe water them if they look wilty, cut them down if they look a little overgrown. S’about it. Some even come back the next year (sage, oregano, and marjoram, for me).
  • Instant satisfaction. You don’t have to wait (much) for them to grow, and certainly no wait for fruit or veg to develop. They come with leaves, and that’s what you eat.
  • Delicious. One of the easiest ways to perk up an otherwise mediocre dish is to add fresh herbs.
  • Money-saving. At least, I think so, given the price of the little packages from the grocery store, particularly considering the entire contents don’t always get used. You grow your own, you can harvest only what you need, as you need it.

Today’s menu of gnocchi with wild mushrooms in a simple olive oil/butter/chicken broth/Parmesan sauce were enhanced with very fresh parsley and sage leaves, which I crisped in the toaster oven. Very delicious with a 2008 Pinot Noir from Rosewood Estates, and only took a half hour to make.